July 18, 2011

With arrival of CBA, Bush to depart?

After an offseason spent making statements indicating he wanted out of New Orleans, then refuting them, the Reggie Bush is situation is going to come to a head in the coming days.

With the NFL's negotiations making significant and pleasantly-surprising progress and a mandatory owner's meeting set for Thursday, free agency will be reinstated by the end of the month, possibly as soon as next week.

Players could report to team headquarters as soon as Saturday.

The NFL has summoned all owners and an executive from each team to Atlanta on Thursday, ostensibly to vote and approve a new deal that is being negotiated in front of by Federal Judge Arthur Boylan.

Which means the Saints' decision on whether or not to keep Bush and his $11.8 million base salary. Entering the final year of his rookie deal, Bush's base salary would be the largest of any runningback.

Bush tweeted after the drafting of Mark Ingram "It's been fun New Orleans," then later backtracked. Various reports have surfaced indicating his sureness of moving on after the season, all confronted by a PR push from the Saints and/or Bush himself indicating that he'd "first and foremost" like to return to the Saints.

Whether or not he'd suffer the hit to his paycheck that the Saints will ask for, is another discussion. In the crowded backfield of Pierre Thomas, Mark Ingram, Chris Ivory and Lynell Hamilton, Bush's salary would need to be commensurate to his continuing job as a situational role player.